IBM today announced that it will provide the microprocessors that will serve as the heart of the new Wii U system from Nintendo. Unveiled today at the E3 trade show, Nintendo plans for its new console to hit store shelves in 2012.

The all-new, Power-based microprocessor will pack some of IBM's most advanced technology into an energy-saving silicon package that will power Nintendo's brand new entertainment experience for consumers worldwide. IBM's unique embedded DRAM, for example, is capable of feeding the multi-core processor large chunks of data to make for a smooth entertainment experience.

IBM plans to produce millions of chips for Nintendo featuring IBM Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology at 45 nanometers (45 billionths of a meter). The custom-designed chips will be made at IBM's state-of-the-art 300mm semiconductor development and manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, N.Y.

The relationship between IBM and Nintendo dates to May 1999, when IBM was selected to design and manufacture the central microprocessor for the Nintendo GameCube system. Since 2006, IBM has shipped more than 90 million chips for Nintendo Wii systems.

"IBM has been a terrific partner for many years. We truly value IBM's commitment to support Nintendo in delivering an entirely new kind of gaming and entertainment experience for consumers around the world," said Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director, Integrated Research and Development, at Nintendo Co., Ltd.

"We're very proud to have delivered to Nintendo consistent technology advancements for three generations of entertainment consoles," said Elmer Corbin, director, IBM's custom chip business. "Our relationship with Nintendo underscores our unique position in the industry -- how we work together with clients to help them leverage IBM technology, intellectual property and research to drive innovation into their own core products."

Built on the open, scalable Power Architecture base, IBM custom processors exploit the performance and power advantages of proven silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The inherent advantages of the technology make it a superior choice for performance-driven applications that demand exceptional, power-efficient processing capability – from entertainment consoles to supercomputers.

I wonder if Wii U will stick with "multipurpose" console and keep CD/DVD features, or if they will junk that (we all have DVD/bluray players already so...) and have a smaller box and distribute games on SD card ROMs. Or some other proprietary format to kill pirating. Flash is so cheap now, you can manufacture and distribute games more cheaply using SD cards than DVDs. And the smaller boxes of the games and of the console all helps reduce shipping volumes, costs, and environmental footprint.

I would quite like the concept of a "console in your pocket or bag" the size of an ipod case or similar (those white transparent plastic boxes iPods come in)

I wonder if Wii U will stick with "multipurpose" console and keep CD/DVD features, or if they will junk that (we all have DVD/bluray players already so...) and have a smaller box and distribute games on SD card ROMs. Or some other proprietary format to kill pirating. Flash is so cheap now, you can manufacture and distribute games more cheaply using SD cards than DVDs. And the smaller boxes of the games and of the console all helps reduce shipping volumes, costs, and environmental footprint.

I would quite like the concept of a "console in your pocket or bag" the size of an ipod case or similar (those white transparent plastic boxes iPods come in)

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I dunno what they cost where you are, but 32gb sd cards ( closest size to blu ray capacity) cost a lot lot more than a single blu ray disc.

If the GPU equals that of a AMD 4800 series, then we will probably see games built from DX10 or even DX11 (if they [AMD] implement the proper tweaks/software tech to support it) from the ground up for PCs finally. This is of course after Sony and MS follow suit and release their next gen systems also.

Might actually be a nifty little cpu, think of Sandybridge quads they are excellent cpu. The 360 is only a tri core IBM. Just because it sounds similar to the 360 cpu doesnt mean they didnt tweak the core design.

I don't see PC games being driven by the lowest common denominator console (Wii). Wii games are simply not PC games. As a PC gamer, I'm far more interested to see what the next gen PS and X-box consoles specs will be like. We're limited to far too many ports from that console class.

Hd4800 gpus are very strong. Quite exciting news! I think we forget just how old the latest generation of consoles have become.

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if it were to be an HD 4800 series, it'd be ridiculously powerful. The 360 uses the Xenos, which is like a fusion of X1950/HD2000 series, and look at the visual's we can get. That's roughly a 6 year old chip/architecture, i'd almost say HD 4800 series would be overpowering. I can see a low-end HD 5k/6k gpu being used thou, as even those have 320+ Shaders compared to the current 48 in the 360.

I dunno what they cost where you are, but 32gb sd cards ( closest size to blu ray capacity) cost a lot lot more than a single blu ray disc.

About 20x more or so.

We've got a long way to go.

Unless you don't mind the games being $100-$120 .

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I dont know why you would need the size on the memory stick to be comparable to the size of the BD disc. The point he was trying to make was we already have bluerayplayers and dvd players so we dont need that function in the console.
Most games probably would fit on an 8GB memory stick and those can be had for 9euros or so(probably $9 in the US). But thats price for end consumer, the companies making the games wont even pay the third of that and thats a pretty cheap pricetag to negate pirating.

if it were to be an HD 4800 series, it'd be ridiculously powerful. The 360 uses the Xenos, which is like a fusion of X1950/HD2000 series, and look at the visual's we can get. That's roughly a 6 year old chip/architecture, i'd almost say HD 4800 series would be overpowering. I can see a low-end HD 5k/6k gpu being used thou, as even those have 320+ Shaders compared to the current 48 in the 360.

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How about something based on the HD5700 series
It is so successful that AMD is still making them as the HD6700 series.

I don't see PC games being driven by the lowest common denominator console (Wii). Wii games are simply not PC games. As a PC gamer, I'm far more interested to see what the next gen PS and X-box consoles specs will be like. We're limited to far too many ports from that console class.

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Yeah and how many Wii games made it to PC?...Hmmm, can't think of any. Maybe Japan has some. But yeah, they are not PC viable games.

But if this drives M$ and Sony to get off their butts...still a win. Just hope they pick their GPUs right. Sony pretty much botched the PS3 from the beginning by going a G70. M$ at least planned a little ahead and got a better chip out of ATI.

I dont know why you would need the size on the memory stick to be comparable to the size of the BD disc. The point he was trying to make was we already have bluerayplayers and dvd players so we dont need that function in the console.
Most games probably would fit on an 8GB memory stick and those can be had for 9euros or so(probably $9 in the US). But thats price for end consumer, the companies making the games wont even pay the third of that and thats a pretty cheap pricetag to negate pirating.

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While the putting of games on a flash stick/memory card is a worthwhile idea, there's a unique setback to it. If this were to happen, new game prices would vary greatly depending on the size. It would inevitably be divided into 8gb/16gb/32gb chunks. A new game requiring a LOT of space (think Unchartered 2) will end up costing a hell of a lot, maybe $80+. Whereas a different game like a racing game or something that isn't that space dependant that ends up on an 8gb flash will cost like $40+. New games that will come out will cost anywhere between $40 - $80. It is just to big of a gap there, which is why I do not see it working unfortunately. But fighting piracy is a good reason to implement this idea, I just don't think its enough of a reason to shell out the expenses required for this

While the upgraded GPU will have a big performance impact (I heard it is 40nm HD 47xx based), I'd have to say that the big upgrade in RAM will be the most significant. I believe we're talking about 512mb system RAM, and 1GB dedicated video RAM (probably gDDR5).

Also, anyone know if the new IBM processor will have out-of-order execution? That's a huge hang up for the 360 CPU (and probably why they added SMT support to it because of constant pipeline stalls).

in the middle of a fabrication plant without so much as a stick, I'de laugh my ass off... On the people who are going to buy those CPUs

Where has it been stated -or even hinted- that the GPU will be based on the 4800 series ? I thought console makers use low end GPUs to control thermal output an keep the price range as low as possible.

Weird photography techniques are weird. I did notice that whatever Fab that is (I'm not actually sure that's Fishkill) doesn't require the employees to wear hoods, veils, and booties. The prior 2 of that list annoy the CRAP out of me >.>

While the putting of games on a flash stick/memory card is a worthwhile idea, there's a unique setback to it. If this were to happen, new game prices would vary greatly depending on the size. It would inevitably be divided into 8gb/16gb/32gb chunks. A new game requiring a LOT of space (think Unchartered 2) will end up costing a hell of a lot, maybe $80+. Whereas a different game like a racing game or something that isn't that space dependant that ends up on an 8gb flash will cost like $40+. New games that will come out will cost anywhere between $40 - $80. It is just to big of a gap there, which is why I do not see it working unfortunately. But fighting piracy is a good reason to implement this idea, I just don't think its enough of a reason to shell out the expenses required for this

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So what you are saying is, they arent producing NEW games for xbox? Xbox uses dvd discs right? No 32GBs on those.